What does it take to become a top DUI defense attorney?

Description

In this video, Lawrence Taylor explains how he has become one of the top DUI defense attorneys in the nation and what is required of an attorney who wants to be successful in this field. To become successful as a DUI defense attorney, it takes specialization in the field and a lot of hard work. There is a wealth of knowledge that goes into becoming a successful DUI defense attorney. The American Bar Association has authorized the National College for DUI Defense to grant specialization through a rigorous testing procedure for those who wish to become specialized in the field of DUI defense law. Ironically, DUI law is one of the most complex areas to deal with, while a DUI charge is also one of the most common criminal charges in our nation.

Show Transcript

Transcript

Richard Jacobs (RJ): Why do you believe that you’ve achieved such tremendous success in your field? When other DUI attorneys, you know, don’t seem to have. You know what is it; you feel that, you know, that distinguishes you and makes you the top guy in the DUI field?

Lawrence Taylor (LT): Well, experience, certainly, is a major factor. Specialization is very important. Very few, even today, very few attorneys are specialized in the DUI field. Even though the American Bar Association has authorized the National College for DUI Defense, a nine hundred member, professional organization that meets at Harvard University every year in July, has authorized them to grant specialization through a rigorous testing procedure. There are very few people who have been able to comply with that. Very few people who limit their practice, very few attorneys who limit their practice to DUI.

RJ: True.

LT: The legal profession is becoming more and more like the medical profession. A general practitioner should not be conducting brain surgery, an orthopedic surgeon should not be delivering babies or having open heart surgery.

RJ: Okay.

LT: It is a time of specialization, particularly because the DUI field is far more complex, far more technical in scientific evidence than the average murder case, believe it or not.

RJ: Really?

LT: Yes, murder cases are actually quite simple. Did he shoot the person or not? Do we have anybody who saw it? It’s really quite simple. Very rarely, once in a long while you may get DNA or something. Blood alcohol, involves, to be really good at it and this is the other part of the answer to my questions . . .

RJ: Okay.

LT: you have got to learn. I mean I went to law school because I didn’t understand physics and math and all that stuff.

RJ: Right.

LT: Well, surprise, now I have to learn electronic engineering, biophysics, biochemistry. Some very technical, difficult issues in the field. . .

RJ: Right.

LT: to understand blood alcohol analysis. I have to understand what’s behind field sobriety tests.

RJ: Yeah.

LT: Horizontal gaze and nystagmus and how the eye operates and so on.

RJ: Wow!

LT: Now the good thing is the DA as I said is not going to know it. . .

RJ: Right.

LT: and usually the police officer is not going to have the level of expertise that you have in these areas. So it takes specialization, it takes a lot of hard work, it takes experience.

RJ: Yeah now it makes a lot more sense why you say that DUI is so complicated, even as compared to murder. . .

LT: It . . .

RJ: It makes a lot of sense, yeah.

LT: It is one of the most complex, ironically, one of the most common, but at the same time one of the most complex areas to deal with, to understand.

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For helpful resources about DUI sobriety checkpoints in Southern California - including advanced information about dates, times and locations where they are planned - visit our "Sobriety Checkpoints: Laws and Locations" section on this website.